Bendigo Advertiser letters to the editor

What’s in the contract?

Why is Australian Clinical Labs able to unilaterally decide which services it will offer to Bendigo Health? Surely their contract includes service and standards requirements.

Bendigo Health cannot just blame the contractor and continue using them without there being a perception that they acquiesce or are being coerced.

Ennis Barnes, Kennington

Schools will benefit

I am surprised that the Bendigo Advertiser (Tuesday May 16) would feature an article on its front page with the claim that a federal funding plan will strip Victorian schools of $5.4 billion, nothing could be further from the truth.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has said that schools across Bendigo will benefit from a funding increase of $24.2 million in Gonski needs based funding between this year and 2021, hardly a decrease as claimed.

One of the schools quoted as an example of the so called funding cuts, Kennington Primary School, in fact, is set to receive $1,325,500 this year, in 2018 $1,399,400, an increase of $73,900. Over ten years to 2027, the school receives $17,824,900, an increase of over 4 and a half million dollars.

The school currently receives a per student ratio of $2,304, next year, $2,433 and in 2027 $3,838. The second school quoted, White Hills Primary currently receives $1,393.00, next year that will rise to $1,471,700, an increase of $77,800.

In 2027, the school will receive $2,321,400 per student. That represents a total for the school of $18,744,700 over the ten year period representing an increase of $4.8 million.

As a former teacher, I am proud to be part of the Government that handed down this Budget which is fair for all Regional Victorian schools.

Senator Bridget McKenzie

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Thoughts for the hungry

Last night while I waited in the supermarket queue, my impatience grew as my stomach growled in hunger. I felt annoyed as I looked down at the food in my trolley, because I wanted to be at home cooking my dinner rather than waiting to be served. As my stomach continued growling in hunger, I tried to stop myself feeling annoyed by thinking about the people suffering hunger pains in Africa. With 20 million people currently facing a famine and starvation crisis in the countries Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria, the hungry growling stomachs would be deafening across Eastern African at the moment.

The 303 million dollars Mr Turnbull heartlessly cut from the AusAid Budget last week could have gone a long way to preventing one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes from engulfing Africa. Mr Turnbull, when will you recommit Australia to the UN Millennium Declaration? Mr Turnbull, when will you ensure Australia contributes our fair share towards achieving the first UN Millennium Development Goal - eradicating extreme poverty and hunger?

Elisha McMurray, Reservoir

Be careful of scammers

There seems to be lot of schemes and deception going on in the world of computers. After being assured repeatedly that he is a Telstra technician, I allowed a heckler to get in my computer.

He was claiming that my computer was full of errors (I wonder who put them there) and some corrections were necessary. If not carried out, he would have to disconnect my computer.

He had a fairly good technical knowledge, how the computer is working. But when he finished asking for the number of my bank account, I became suspicious and didn't give it to him. He then turned nasty and stopped my computer from working.

It has cost me several hundred dollars to have it restored. The gist of the story is, that it doesn't pay to trust anybody.